Frankenstein

A re telling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in collaboration with Ben Haggarty

Originally commissioned by the Hay on Wye Literature Festival Frankenstein tours Britain and Canada in 2010 including The Barbican in London with the Crick Crack Club.

Enter a world of feverish dreaming, as storyteller Ben Haggarty and musician Sianed Jones present an intense steam punk interpretation of Mary Shelley’s modern myth. Two master performers explore the nature of the consciousness of a man made by man and the responsibility of the creator towards the created. Truly a story of our time, Frankenstein speaks of power unleashed and fear unknown. Internationally renowned for his playful and dynamic performances, Ben Haggarty tells his stories with infectious charm and deceptive ease. Composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer, Sianed Jones has been variously described as having a voice like that of a ‘wailing Welsh Banshee,’ a ‘soft seducer’, and a ‘passionate revolutionary’.

‘Haggarty is not called a performance storytelling for nothing. In Frankenstein, he inhabits a pantheon of characters all the while never straying from traditional prose banter with a few stretches of dialogue. Carny showman, a misguided youth, a broken father, a tortured creature, all are fully realized in seconds as Haggarty expertly flips from one character to another…..’

….. for her part Sianed Jones not only complemented Haggarty’s performance with musical pauses and mood, she would take the next step in the narrative, shrieking or cooing the inner mantras of its characters aloud. She also drew from a creative mix of instruments: violin, electronic effects harmonium, electric bass including playing the latter with a violin bow.’